


Fight it.  Take the Pain, Ignite it.

by Ithinkwehaveanemergency



Series: Holding on to You [2]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Getting to Know Each Other, Good Theo Raeken, M/M, Werewolf Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22352023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithinkwehaveanemergency/pseuds/Ithinkwehaveanemergency
Summary: Peter tells himself that he should stop obsessing over Theo Raeken.And well... he's never been good at listening to himself.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Theo Raeken
Series: Holding on to You [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608994
Comments: 10
Kudos: 59





	Fight it.  Take the Pain, Ignite it.

Peter knows he should have stayed away.

But there's definitely something very _off_ about _Theo Raeken._

Peter held out for all of a week before he lifted Theo's surname from the apartment listings and looked into him as much as possible with the limited resources he has, now that he's _sort of_ cut ties with S.H.I.E.L.D.

The young part-time student essentially doesn't exist between his early childhood and the current year. Of course, there are school records from a small town in California, suspiciously barren medical records from the same town, and an impossibly neat and tidy credit history. There's even a social security number with a birth certificate from a famous hospital in Illinois that checks out.

But that's it.

Peter has run backgrounds on a lot of people ever since… everything changed. No one ever has so little presence on the internet. It looks more like he'd just been written into history hastily, without much thought.

Theo _might not_ be telling his school, work, and landlord who he really is. It's _that_ , or some strange things have been redacted from his records.

So Peter continues his research.

_"It's not stalking, Karen, it's research."_

He even talks to Theo briefly as the man is exiting his apartment building one morning.

"You miss me, Spidey?" Theo teases right as Peter lands from a swing and falls in step beside him.

"You seem like you were expecting me." Peter huffs at the cool demeanor of the man he's been following around for a couple weeks now.

"Yeah well, it was only a matter of time before you stopped being a creeper and watching my walk to the subway from the rooftops." Theo shrugs before he comes to a stop at the underground entrance. "You got a subway pass on you anywhere, or is this where we say goodbye?"

Peter narrows his eyes at Theo, and then further still when it causes the other man to grin widely. He simply shakes his head and takes off up the building without another word to the mysterious guy who has been plaguing his thoughts for too long.

He vows to keep an eye out for Theo, but to stop this strange obsession _immediately_.

  
  


*****

The resolution doesn't last long.

Theo smirks and tosses the ID back onto the bartop before looking up at Peter, who simply cannot stop fidgeting on the stool in front of him.

"Peter Parker, eh?"

"Um, yeah. That's me." Peter exhales on a laugh. Good ol' Pete."

Theo's smirk instantly flips upside down into a displeased frown. Peter hasn't been graced by this particular expression, and he chides himself when he instantly finds it cute.

"Don't tell me you go by Pete." Theo winces.

"Um, no. No, I don't actually know why I said that. Peters fine. Everyone calls me Peter. Or Parker. Or Peni- uh… nevermind " Peter shakes his head and waves his hand in the air. He then furrows his brow and looks to the right, muttering to himself impossibly low. _"Jesus, Parker, what is wrong with you?"_

"Yeah, uh… I don't think we have time to unpack that question right now, since you're gonna be leaving in a second." Theo's smirk is back and he picks up a glass, spinning it against his palm and then catching it again with ease.

"What?" Peter squints in confusion. "Wait, what? Why?"

"You know that you're not actually 25, right? And that technically that ID is expired and I can't serve you since you didn't show me your new ID with the little… star thingy. And yours would be purple anyway, meaning… no alcohol for you."

"What? I am too, 25! How would you know?"

"Because you told me you were twenty about two months ago, dumbass, and this says your _'26th'_ birthday isn't for another six months from now. Doesn't exactly take a mathematician. Also, what finally made you come inside after being a weirdo creeper for a month? You've walked by this place almost every day I've worked since I last saw you outside the subway."

Peter freezes up and his heart rate rises in slight panic.

"Okay, who the fuck _are you_?"

"You know my name, Peter." Theo snorts, amused, and still infuriatingly calm.

"Alright, _fine_ . Who the fuck are you, _Theo_ ? I've been watching you for weeks and you're clearly _not_ a bad guy. You don't do anything strange or out of the ordinary. You're actually _super boring_ most of the time, and there's no reason you should know any of these things about me or the fact that I'm… y'know…"

"A masked crusader?" Theo supplies, clearly unimpressed with Peter's crisis.

"Exactly! What the fuck, man? How can you possibly know-"

"Your scent." Theo says and turns away to fill the pint glass full of water. He pours it to the top and sets it in front of Peter Parker, right next to the expired NY ID card.

"My _what?_ "

Theo looks up and meets Peter's narrowed eyes. He smirks at the expression.

"That is _exactly_ what I expected you looked like when your eyes narrowed inside the mask."

_"Hey! Shh!"_ Peter looks around warily, cause Theo to shake his head in amusement. "What the fuck do you mean by that, Theo? Are you saying I stink?"

"No, I just recognized the way you smell. You ran into me one of the first times you came here. Right when I was just getting to work. And I knew it was you because of your _scent_ . I know it pretty damn well since we got up close and personal while I stitched you up. And also, you _bled on my carpet_."

"That's not-" Peter balks at the reasoning and then blushes, right about the time he realizes he never apologized for staining the carpet.

"Look, you can pay me back for the bloody carpet thing over dinner. When I'm off work, okay? Meet me here at 9:30. But for now, I really can't serve you, I couldn't even if your _were_ 25\. Not without the new IDs. Policy. And I'm pretty sure you can't actually get drunk anyway, so what would be the point?"

"How- _Fine_." Peter grunts, upset with the lack of answers. He downs the glass of water furiously and then sets it on the counter with a sheepish glance up at Theo. He swallows and nods quickly. "Thanks, I was actually super thirsty."

"I imagine. I'll see you here at 9:30." Theo nods back and then goes to greet the two people who just walked in and sat at the other end of the bar.

Peter walks out of the bar and back into the alley where he'd stashed his bag, figuring he might as well get some crime-fighting in while he waits.

  
  


*****

Peter meets Theo outside the bar as promised. Theo has food in hand that he says he got as leftovers from the kitchen staff, and they walk back to Theo's apartment the long way, no subway.

Along the way, Theo explains that werewolves exist.

Peter has to stop and gather himself for a minute after that one.

Once they settle that bit of information, Theo promising he'll answer questions about mythology vs reality later, Theo explains that he isn't exactly a werewolf, but it's easier to just explain it that way.

Peter shakes his head as they approach the apartment building and complains that he needs some food in his stomach before processing the rest of this information.

Theo laughs and invites him in.

They scarf down the excessive amount of food in relative silence, but as soon as he's sated, the questions start again.

"So, why did you tell me that you were 20, if you're old enough to work at a bar, are you clearly aren't new at it." Peter leans forward for another french fry. He doesn't mention that he's seen Theo's current ID, and it does _not_ have a purple star, indicating he had been gone for five years. "I've seen you serve and you're insane what you can do behind that bar."

"Because I disappeared." Theo shrugs. He holds out his tray of stuffed peppers and offers one to Peter. Peter frowns at the explanation as he takes a fried hot pepper. "When you did, when everyone else did, I disappeared too. But the thing is… no one was there to report me missing. I had one person in the world who actually gave a shit, and a week before it happened, I left him and his, uh... _family..._ a note saying that I was leaving and not to look for me."

Peter stares, speechless. He knows that he's lost more than a lot of people, but the look on this guy's face as he talks about his past makes Peter think that he's lost everything that one can possibly have. Maybe more.

"So yeah, I had just sold my car and turned off my phone. I was staying alone in a seedy motel off of I-90. I was on my way to see an old acquaintance when it happened. But he didn't know I was coming, so there was no one to notice I wasn't there. And since I'd recently been dead, I had no bank accounts or unpaid bills that got flagged after the _disappearance_."

"Holy cow. Wait, _what_?" Peter shakes his head, holding a hand up. "Did you say you were dead?"

"Oh. Yeah." Theo shrugs. "That's not really that weird where I come from. I can't think of many of my old… _friends…_ who haven't died at least once. Nolan, I guess? But I heard he was one of us. The ones who disappeared? So I mean, if that counts-"

"It doesn't." Peter practically shouts, cutting off Theo's musing. He blushes and lowers his voice. "I don't count it. It doesn't count."

Theo looks at him like he's just become a puzzle, and Theo is not sure how to start putting it back together.

"Look, honestly?" Theo makes a sympathetic face and reaches for the oreo shake on the coffee table. "I gotta tell you, you're pretty terrible at the whole detective thing. First of all… You are the most obvious tail ever. Second… You should have figured out that I wasn't human when I heard you willing your dick to behave from two rooms away. Like, can _you_ even hear that well?"

"Yes." Peter scoffs, the answer coming out more like a protest. He turns red at the memory of the incriminating things he said under his breath that day.

Theo takes a loud slurp through his straw, looking down and away as his eyebrows go up in disbelief.

"I can! I just… have to focus. Or like… something bad needs to be happening." Peter picks at the frayed knee of his skinny jeans. He shrugs his shoulders and looks up at Theo through his eyelashes.

"You-" Theo blinks at him and shakes his head. "Your _senses turn up_ when something bad is going to happen?"

"Yeah."

"So if I suddenly got the brilliant idea to kill you and tried to sneak up on you and attack, you'd what, _turn into a spider_?" Theo snorts.

Peter levels him with a withering stare and then looks back down at his torn jeans. He pouts before mumbling out his response.

"No. The hairs on my arm would stand up." Peter grumbles.

Theo bursts out laughing and leans over for a fry. When he pops it in his mouth, he notices that Peter isn't smiling. His mirth ceases immediately.

"Oh, you're serious." Theo clears his throat and nods slowly. "That's… And you think _I'm_ weird? There isn't even a biological explanation for that. Like… at all."

"Shut up." Peter rolls his eyes and reaches out quickly to smack Theo's arm with the back of his hand. But instead of his playful hit connecting, he finds his wrist in Theo's grip, the _chimera_ smiling at him with mischief in his eyes.

"We should fight." Theo smiles around the words, like it's Christmas morning and he's suggesting they build a snowman.

Peter stares at him. He blinks twice, and Theo's smile doesn't falter.

"What, are you _crazy?!_ " Peter shrieks, before lower his voice and giving an apologetic look around at the walls, like he can see the neighbors he's just woken. He yanks his hand out of Theo's and turns a glare on the young man, shaking his head. "I'm not gonna _fight_ you. I'd hurt you! Or… you might hurt me? I dunno. How strong _are_ you?"

Theo holds back laughter, and the mischief remains in his eyes.

"That's what I wanna know!" Theo whispers, obviously excited at the idea. "I mean, I'm pretty sure you'll be _way_ stronger, but we don't know until we find out! And I heal, so we're fine if you accidentally hurt me."

"Uh… _what_? No!" Peter stand up from the couch and starts pacing. He puts one hand on his hip and rubs his forehead with the free one. "This is such a stupid idea. We can't."

"Oh, come on." Theo whines.

Peter stops on his heel and turns to find that Theo has crossed the room toward him and is crowding his toward the wall. He swallows as Theo puts his hands on the wall, propped on either side of Theo's face, closing in.

"Please?" Theo frowns deeply, seemingly searching the depth of Peter's soul through his eyes. "We can be careful. Have rules. _Whatever_ . I haven't had someone I could fight without risk of seriously hurting them in a long time. And when you've seen the things I have… sometimes the memories just crawl into your head and… you just _itch_ for a good fight."

Peter swallows. He looks down at his feet and then up into Theo's dilated eyes. He doesn't want to relate, but he does. He sees a kind of pain and restlessness in Theo's eyes that he understands all too well.

"Okay." Peter exhales. "Okay, just once. Just to see."

Theo's grin returns full force.

"Okay, then."

*****

" **Oww!** Fuck _me_ , that hurts so bad."

"I'm sorry!" Peter whines pitifully, backing away with his hands up. "I told you this was a bad idea! I tried to tell you!"

"Peter, Peter." Theo pants, crawling onto all fours before getting up and rolling the shoulder that Peter had just yanked back into place for him, at hus request. Theo winces and then exhales before walking toward Peter, laughing lightly. "Peter, I'm fine. Nothing even broke. That will heal in like… less than two minutes. I'm completely fine. It's all good."

Theo reaches out for Peter's still-raised right hand and draws him closer before pressing fingers to where a shallow set of messy gashes had been on Peter's shoulder from early in the fight when Theo had a good grip on him. Peter had knocked Theo down to the ground seemingly effortlessly, but Theo's claws had been holding on to him and ripped through the skin of his shoulder.

The skin is completely healed, and Theo runs his thumb over it like he's soothing the nonexistent wound.

"Wow, I'm gonna just swallow my pride then. Oh, and I'm not going to even bother apologizing for this." Theo leans in closer toward the torn, slightly-bloodied fabric. "Did you even feel that?"

"Of course I felt it." Peter snorts. "Stung like a bitch. I'm still sorry, though. I didn't mean to throw you that hard!"

"You mean you were pulling your punches?" Theo grins up from where he's staring at the smooth skin, simultaneously rubbing his thumb against it, like he still can't believe how much faster Peter heals.

"Yeah, but only for the last like… six minutes?" Peter cringes, waiting for Theo to get mad at him for holding back. "I realized like halfway through the fight that as long as I keep momentum on my side, I'm like… way, **_way_ ** stronger than you."

Theo cackles and shoves at Peter, who finally cracks and laughs back.

"God, that was great, through." Theo exhales and then surveys the rest of the abandoned, roofless, shell of a brick warehouse. He sighs again and stares up at the sky. "I like this place, by the way. How'd you find it?"

"I dunno." Peter shrugs and looks up as well. "I've seen a lot of this city. Helps that I can get around it easier than everyone else."

"I bet." Theo smiles. "Did you bring your suit? Can we go back that way?"

Peter looks over at Theo with a surprised expression.

"You'd trust me to swing with you?"

Peter does have his suit in his backpack, but only in case of an emergency. He didn't expect that Theo would like the thought of being carried around the city.

"Yeah, why not?" Theo looks down from the stars and smirks at him. He then turns and pulls Peter back toward him and leans in close to his ear, his hand threading through the hair on the back of Peter's head and gripping enough to draw a gasp. "I also have a vested interest in getting home faster, because my shoulder is healed and I vaguely recall you saying something about wanting to _lick me_ , and if you're still mumbling about that to yourself, I think that sounds _really fucking great_ right about now."

Peter nods quickly, and narrowly avoids choking on his own tongue and he turns away for a moment to cough out his surprise. He holds up a finger to indicate that he needs a minute before grabbing his bag and walking through one of the still standing doorways.

When he walks back into the larger, main room of the dilapidated building a minute later, Theo's arms are crossed and the smile on his face is blinding.

"Nice to see you again, Spidey." Theo teases.

"Yeah, okay. We can do this." Peter grumbles. "Just no more talking about anything involving tongues once we're in the air. I refuse to swing around New York City with a boner."

Theo's responding laugh is bright and beautiful, and Peter can't bring himself to regret his inability to stick to his own resolutions.


End file.
